Method of making brake-beam fulcrums



v E. R. VIBERG- I METHOD OF MAKING BBAKEBEAM FULCRUMS,

APPL ICATION FILED' HAY 3h 1M9.

' Patent ed May 2,1922.

ERNEST a. vnsnn or MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, Assrenon r oAnAnIAN CAR AND FOUNDRY COMPANY LIMITED, OF MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, A CORPORA- TION.

1,414,607., Specification of Application filed May 31,

a full, clear, and exact description;

This invention relates to improvements in forged brake beam fulcrums and in the method of making same, and the object of the invention is to provide a forged fulcrum of very light weight which willhave the required stiffness and bearing surface for the fulcrum pin and which may be made very easily and cheaply.

At the present time, owing to the increased service required of brake beam fulcru-ms on account of the, increased weight and capacity of cars, it has been found that cast fulcrums are'not reliable when' made 7 within the permissible limits of weight and size, and there is therefore demand for a forged fulcrum which will combine the necessary strength'with a minimum of size and weight and with low cost.

According to the presentainvention, afulcrum is produced in which the cross section necessary body of material where as great 7 ing of the bar to its final new form is one of of material is varied in the different parts of the fulcrum according to requirements, so that the necessary strength may be obtained where required not accompanied by an unstrength is not necessary. In order to produce this result, a bar of metal is elongated by a rough drawing or forging operation, which serves to distribute the metal in varying amounts at'different points in the length of the bar. This bar is then forged to the desired shape and finally bent to its finished form. The method of forging differs from that previously'employed in that the bend the lastjoperations, whereas according to previous methods the bending has beenone of the first operations, The result is that.

according to this invention, the forging's "ing surfaces for the fulcrum pin.

METHOD OF MAKING- BRAKE-IBEAM FULCRUMS.

Letters Patent.

1919. Serial No. 301,073.

final forging operation.

Fig, 3.is an edge elevation corresponding to Figure 2.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the fulcrum complete.- a

Figs.-5 and 6 are fragmentary plan views showing alternative foot constructions for the fulcrum.

Referring more particularly to the draw ings, 11 designates a bar of metal, rough forged to provide a central enlargement 12 and two other enlargements 13 located one on either side of the central enlargement 12 and equidistant therefrom. Beyond the enlargements 18, the bar is reduced to a point near the ends and the end portions 14 are olfset to opposite sides of the bar. In the next forging operation, the centralportion 12 is driven out of the plane of the bar, as clearly shown in Figure 3, so as to form the actual 'U-bend 15 at the end of the fulcrum and also the seat 16 for thetension member of the brake beam. It will be noted that the bend or end' of the fulcrum is now out of the plane of the bar, which has become divided into arms '17 connected to the end of the fulcrum at the bends, 18 and lying in alignment; Each of the enlargements 13 is increased in size, as shown at 19, and pockets 20 are formed in opposite sides of each side of the bar on which the U-bend 15 lies..

These bosses add to the thickness of the arms 17 sufficiently to give the required bear- At the same time that the b0sses'2l are formed, ribs 22 are produced on each side of each boss extending in the longitudinal direction of the arms and serve to stifien the arms Patented May 2, 1922...

adjacent the boss and U-bend. At the next operation, each arm 17 is twisted through approximately 45 adjacent its free end, as clearly shown at 23, F igure. 4, and is then bent'beyond the twist through an angle of 90 to'form feet 24, by means of which the fulcrum may. be secured to the compression member of a brake beam. The final operation of forming the beam is to straighten out the bends 18, thus bringing the two arms into parallelism, as shown in Figure 4. The fulcrum is now finished by drilling through at the pockets 20 to receive a fulcrum pin and through the feet to receive attaching rivets. From the foregoing description, it will be seen that all the forging operations .are carried out on a substantially flat bar,

so that the dies may be of the simplest char aoter.

The whole process of fma'nufacture is infinitely more simple than the existing processes, in which the bar isfirst bentto new form and is afterwards forged toformi the socket 16 and twisted to bring the arms into proper angular relation with the feet. It is obvious that the operationofforging the socket and twisting to properly dispose the feet is greatly complicated by the U form of the bar and that quite elaborate gripping dies are necessary inaddition to the forging dies.

, While the arms have been shown separate at their foot ends in Figure 4, it will be un- ;derstood that the invention is not limited to this feature, as the free extremities of the arms may be drawn together at their twisted points 23 and welded together into a bar 25, as in Figure 5, or when drawn together may be welded or riveted to form a flat bar 26, as in Figure 6. After forming into either of the forms shown in Figures 5 or 6, the feet 24 are turned outwardlyfor attachment to the compression member of a brake beam- It will be understo0d{:that if desired the feet of the fulcrum in the form shown in Figure 4 may be formed after the arms have been bent into parallelism.

It will benote'd that in any of the forms,

the ends of the bar are'oppositely offset.

This offsetting facilitates forming the twists 23 in the arms and reduces stresses 1n the metal which would be caused lf'the arms were straightby the greater stretching of one edge to bring the edges of the bar between the twists alignment.

Between the fulcrumpin and. the. feetof the fulcrum there isno great load on the fulcrum, so thatmuch less metal is required in this part of the bar than around the pin and between the pin and tension member and the extremities into socket. The provision of additional ma? terial. in the bar towardthe centre in the 1 first rough drawing, operationgives the requisite additional cross section of material to enable the ribs-22 to be formed and yet 'ness toward the centre as at the leave the body of the bar of the same thick ends, as clearly shown in Figure 3.

Having thus described -my invention,

what I claim is '1. A process of making forged brake beam fulcrums, which comprises rough forging a straight bar to leave greater amounts of metal at the centre than at other'points'of fulcrum from the increased amount at the centre of the bar. 7 j 2. r k process ofmaking forged br fulcrums, which .-comprises rough forging a straight bar to provide greater amounts of metal at certain points therein, 1 and'subsequently forging the bar to form fulcrumpin bearings and stiffening ribsof said additional amounts of metal, meanwhile leaving thethickness of the barbodyuniform: throughout its length betweenthe centre portion and ends.

'3. A process of making forged brake beam fulcrums, which comprises displacing metal at the centre of a bar to form ai'U-bend located out of the plane. of the bar, and dividing the bar intot'wo aligned arms and subsequentlybending the arms into parallelisn 1 4. A processof making forged brake beam fulcrums of U-shape, which comprises forging a bar intermediate its ends to form a U-bend located out of the plane of. the

bar, and simultaneously forming a brake beam tension member socket in said bent portion forming the bar on either side of the bend to the desired shape, and finally.

bending the portions into parallelism.

5. A process of making-forged brake beamfulcrum's, which comprises forging a brake beam-tension member socketat the centre of the bar, forming the bar on each side of said socket to the desiredshape and finallybending the bar at points adjacent the socket to form a U-shaped structure.

6. A process of making forged brake beam fulcrums which comprises offsetting the end portions of a bar in opposite directions,

twisting the and bendingthe bar to U-shape.

ends of said bar atthe offsets,

'7. A process of makingforged-brakebeam fulerums,'wh1ch COIIIPIISGS CllELWlDg out a bar to formportions of different width thereon, forglng the drawn out bar to form arms of uniform thickness and projectionslfrom said arms built up of the greater amounts I of metal in the wider portions of the drawn bar, and bending the forged bar at points adjacent its centre; r '8. A method of making forged brake beam fulcrums, which comprises increasing; the, j

.stifiness of a bar at thecentre and inportionson each SldQOftllG centre, leaving por tions of less stiffness between the centre and bending the bar at the unstifiened points adj acent the centre.

9. A process according to claim 8, char- 1e acterized by twisting the bar adjacent its extremities before bending, and bring the edges of the bar beyond the twists into alignment without placing a greater fiber stress in one edge of the bar than in the other by oppositely offsetting end portions of the bar prior to twisting.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand.

i ERNEST R. VIBERG. 

